In contrast to the cooking of foodstuffs by the housewife in her kitchen, the cooking of such food in present day fast-service commercial establishments dictate the use of certain standardized procedures requiring equipment especially designed for the purpose. For example, in the cooking of breaded foods such as chicken parts a basket holding the same is removably positioned in the cooking vessel. For optimum fast service such a basket should be easily loaded and unloaded, should permit the several food articles to be cooked without sticking together, and should be capacious so that a substantial amount of food may be cooked during one cycle of operation of the cooking apparatus. Although various forms of baskets and trays have been disclosed in the prior art it is found that they embody certain disadvantages which it is a purpose of the present invention to overcome. Use of baskets such as shown by Keathley U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,677 and Simens U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,692 entails a slow loading procedure; use of baskets such as shown by Harris U.S. Pat. No. 2,138,967 permits the food articles to stick together unless the vessel is opened and the basket is shaken during the cooking; and use of a stacked tray basket such as shown by Pelster et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,174 3,677,174 also entails slow loading and unloading procedures.